Emily Henderson on sat 3 jan 98
Good Morning all. I have been "down" for several months. Not dead, just
disconnected. Empty Bowls was October 18. We moved October 25. Needless
to say, life was confusing. I have had no phone line until our family
hardware guru installed new pentium and phone line for me over Christmas.
So.... Empty Bowls raised $2,600 which is very good for a little dinky
town. The funds went to The Astoria/Warrenton Foodbank Pioneer House
(homeless shelter) and the local Rescue Mission. A smaller percentage went
to the St. Vincent DePaul Society, Loaves and Fishes (a local Lutheran
Charity that feeds the hungry and elderly), and VOCA (Victory over child
Abuse, a summer camp program operated locally with all-volunteer staff, to
buy food, their most expensive item) The overhead from the participating
churches of the Astoria Ministerial Association was 0. The overhead from
the potters was 0. Clatsop Community College fired 102 pots in one firing
of their large kiln. The George Wright Clay Company contributed 200 lbs of
clay. Fred Meyer contributed 25.00 worth of food. The Ship Inn, a local
restauant contributed their clam chowder (MMMMMM :-)) soup base. Home
Spirit Baking, bakers of traditional french style hearth breads and
sourdoughs, made most of the bread. Volunteers made three soups, the
chowder, the vegetarian, and a "steak". 225 bowls were sold. It was one of
the happiest occasions I have ever attended. The host institution, St.
Mary's Catholic Chirch was so great, so organized and so welcomming that all
were just delighted to be there. Rod Maxwell-Muir, a well-known and highly
respected potter here made a beautiful large bowl as a door prize for
participating potters. It was won by a local sweet-sweet senior senior.
She had decorated many bowls which I threw of low-fire clay and fired them
at the senior center in their kiln. I have some nice photos and would be
glad to send them to SDSU for a web page or whatever if it might encourage
others to start their own projects. The good news is that the project went
so well. The bad news is the Ministerial Association really wants to do it
again... More pots, LOTS more pots This brought so many people of
different faith perspectives (or none) together to work side-by-side. It
was just a really good thing. We are planning to do it next year about
Thanksgiving time. If anyone wants a copy of our 1997 brochure, send me an
SASE at NEW ADDRESS: 1585 Exchange St. Astoria OR 97103 and I'll get it off
to you. I also have a few copies of the front page article the Daily
Astorian did about the Project and the problem of hunger in our county left
too. I am glad to report that Georgie's Clay Co. in Portland has already
gotten us started with a 200 lb gift of clay and I am pretty sure that the
College will again fire pots if we get them finished before summer.
Personal update. I have been stripping wallpaper and making curtains for
our new "old" bakery/cafe? here in Astoria. We have moved to a 2 bedroom
(kinda cramped?) apt in what will be the upstairs but we are located right
where the tourist boats and Maritime Museum and Heritage Museum are so we
expect a good business flow. I have also been taking a course in
printmaking at the College. New and interesting. This is my first "art"
course of my life but, since I draw pretty well, might be something I'm good
at. While waiting for my brake job to be completed at Les Schwab, I did a
sketch of their coffe area and car lift window. These were NICE people,
effecient, friendly and CHEAP, the coffee was fresh and the magazines were
even CURRENT! Needless to say, I was impressed, resulting in the sketch and
subsequent etching. It was fun and came out pretty well. Lots to learn and
to explore new things. So much art, so little time.... Happy New Year to
all. I gotta go clean up after Christmas mess.... Emily in Astoria where
it's grey and the river is steel and the outgoing cargo ships loaded...good
news!
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